Thomas Preston

Thomas Preston (1722-1798) was a British Army captain who commanded the soldiers who fired upon a patriot mob in what became known as the "Boston Massacre" of 1770.

Biography
Thomas Preston was born in Ireland in 1722 to an Anglo-Irish family, and he became an officer in the 29th Regiment of Foot (now the 29th (Worcestershire) Regiment of Foot), part of the Boston garrison under Thomas Gage. On 5 March 1770, the British Army troops fired on an aggressive mob of 200 rioters after they threw objects at the soldiers and dared them to fire, and Preston and most of his soldiers were acquitted after a trial in which they were defended by lawyer John Adams. After his trial, Preston retired from the army, and he settled in Ireland; he reunited with Adams during the 1780s when Adams was serving as ambassador to Great Britain. Preston died in 1798.